VirtuallyYours (8 page)

Charley put her MRE down. She wasn’t going to finish it
anyway and now she felt sick. Memories of the bloodstained hangar floor flooded
her brain.

Pete squeezed hand. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.
Fleet Command won’t let them keep you. They’ll want to hang on to someone with
your skills. ‘“

Pete released her hand when he heard footsteps in the
corridor outside. Kirez was back.

“Tinar wants your female on the bridge.”

Charley followed them along the corridor, ignoring the
curious stares of the crew. Pete had turned caveman again and he was busy
glaring at anyone who looked in her direction. It was all just a show. Despite
the heated kisses of the previous night, Pete hadn’t laid a finger on her. When
Kirez was gone, he had just rolled over and went to sleep, leaving her confused
and frustrated. Pete had just told her that she was useful to Fleet Command and
he was her protector until they got home. So why was she feeling so miserable?

Liston was already waiting for them when they reached the
bridge. “Good morning, Ensign Maxwell, you’re just in time. We appear to be
having a little difficulty with the Array.”

“His name is Marc,” Charley responded grumpily. She lay down
in her chair and pulled the visor down.

“Not yet, Ensign. Captain Tinar wants the AV channel
repaired and routed back to the bridge, but the Array, I mean Marc, is refusing
to cooperate.” Liston glanced apologetically at Tinar. “He always was such a
stubborn boy.”

Charley caught an anxious look from Pete. Damn. If Liston
got his way, Tinar would hear everything they said, but she didn’t dare refuse
him outright. “I’ll speak to him about it.”

She pulled the visor down and found herself back on the
beach again. Marc stood at the edge of the water, staring out to sea. The sky
was slate gray and it matched her mood perfectly. Marc seemed different today.
Distant. As if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. “Hi, Marc, how
are you?”

Charley rubbed her hands lightly along the pale cable-knit
sweater he was wearing, feeling the rough wool under her fingertips. The
sensory enhancement program he had designed was amazing.

“My father says that from now on I must respond to Captain
Tinar’s commands. He wants to be able to see and hear everything that goes on
here.”

The wind picked up, gusting along the beach, scattering a
fine film of sand. White topped waves dashed against the shore, splashing their
feet with icy water. Dark clouds rolled toward the shore. Charley looked at the
leaden sky. There was going to be a storm.

She had never seen Marc like this before. This grim,
unshaven man was utterly different from the one who had been so shyly anxious
to befriend her. It was as if some of the old Marc was fighting to come
through. As the rain began to pelt down, he grabbed her hand. “Come, Charley,
I’ve made us some shelter.”

It was like something from an old movie, a blue-tiled,
clapboard beach house, surrounded by a wide veranda. They shook off the rain as
they raced up the front steps and hurried inside. Broad wooden planks floored
the house throughout and large comfortable chairs were scattered around the
room. A half-drunk mug of coffee sat on a side table, as if the owner had left
the room only minutes before. Charley looked around her. The level of detail
was breathtaking. This was more than a virtual template. The house felt oddly
real.

Charley heard the sound of footsteps on the wooden stairs
and Marc returned with some towels and motioned her to sit so that he could dry
her hair. When he was satisfied, he tossed the towel aside and dragged his
fingers though the tangled mass. Marc’s touch was gentle, but oddly intimate.
Maybe Pete was right, maybe in his own strange way, Marc did have feelings for
her.

“I do not wish to disobey my father, but I cannot let him
control my life here. I have done as you requested, Charley.”

The mirror over the fireplace vanished and Marc displayed
the schematics of the ship. “There are twelve Vashtar on board the Pegasus. I
have monitored their com links. There is another craft following our course, a
Delta class transporter. Communications between the two ships would suggest
that it belongs to the Vashtar.”

“So even if we managed to gain control of the Pegasus, we’d
still have to fight off the other ship?”

“Precisely, Charley, but their crew is small and they will
also have to stop for provisions. I have examined the course the Vashtar have plotted.
There are several planets with life forms suitable for their hunting needs. The
first is two days from here. The second planet is a day from Tarsus Four.”

Charley looked at the display. Each day they were moving
further and further away from Earth. If the Vashtar were hungry, they would
head for the nearest planet. “So we have forty-eight hours to come up with a
plan to defeat them and take back the Pegasus. How are we going to be ready on
time?”

“I believe I can provide a sufficient distraction while Pete
prepares the tech crew for battle.”

Charley raised an eyebrow. This new Marc was far too human
for her liking. If he turned into another caveman like Pete, she was going to
trade herself to the Vashtar. “What did you have in mind?”

His brown eyes sparkled with amusement “I’m going to be a
very bad Array and you’re going to fix me.”

Great, now he wanted to play doctors and nurses.
If
they got out of this alive, she was swearing off men for good. Well, for at
least six months anyway. The amusement faded suddenly from Marc’s face.
“Charley, you must return to the bridge immediately.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“The Vashtar have discovered an unauthorized communication
with Earth last night. Lieutenant Kirez has summoned the crew to witness a
punishment.”

When Charley pulled off her visor, the bridge was empty,
except for Professor Liston. “Ensign, did you request the AV channel for
Captain Tinar?”

Charley brushed him aside. “I don’t have time for that now.
Where have they taken Pete?”

“It’s best if you don’t go there, my dear. The Vashtar can
be quite bloodthirsty.”

There were times that her height was an advantage and this
was one of them. Charley approached the Professor until they were to eye. He
backed away until he stumbled against the wall. A nervous tic hammered beside
his left eye.

“Believe me, Professor, you don’t know the meaning of the
word. Now where the hell are they?”

“S-s-storage bay four.”

Charley raced toward the storage bays. As she approached,
she could hear the guttural roars of the Vashtar.
Don’t let me be too late
.
The tech crew huddled together against one wall. Eric’s injury was bleeding
again and an angry red stain marked the sleeve of his uniform. Pete stood in
the center of a circle of baying Vashtar. His left cheek had an ugly bruise.
Blood from his injured face splattered down the front of his tunic. Pete bent
his knees, bracing himself to receive another blow. The smiling lieutenant
raised his fist again.

“Don’t you touch him.”

There was a shocked silence as Charley entered the circle.
Pete grabbed her arm roughly and swung her behind him. Kirez stepped forward, a
sadistic gleam in his eye. “Discipline your female, Alpha. Or I will.”

Chapter Eight

Pete looked around him. Kirez was still smiling, waiting to
see what he would do. There was no way out of this. The Vashtar closed in,
roaring at him. “Do it. Do it.”

If he didn’t punish Charley, one of them would. What the
hell was she doing here? He had warned her never to challenge them. Even with
his tech enhancements, he couldn’t hope to protect her from all of them. Out of
the corner of his eye, Pete could see the lieutenant’s hand closing into a
fist. He rounded on Charley, looking pleadingly at her. Charley’s face drained
of color. She nodded her head and closed her eyes. He couldn’t do this. He
couldn’t hit her. But if he didn’t, one of the Vashtar might kill her.

“Human, we are waiting.”

Pete felt a sudden pain in his chest where his heart should
have been. Now there was a gaping, ugly sea of bitterness. Charley’s eyelashes
fluttered open again. Her gray eyes stared steadily at him. She trusted him,
but if he hit her, he would hurt her. Nothing else would satisfy them. Pete
drew back his arm, his mouth forming a silent apology.

“Stop this barbaric display.”

At the appearance of the captain, the soldiers grew quiet.
“A female may not fight a male. If she is injured, it will lessen her trading
value.”

As he unclenched his fist, Pete said a silent prayer of
thanks for the captain’s business acumen.

“Discipline her in private, Alpha, but do not injure her too
much. I need her to fly my ship.”

Pete caught an indignant glare from Charley and he flashed a
warning glance, telling her to keep quiet. It was time to get her out of here.
With that, he picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, wincing as his
injured back screamed for attention. “Stay down,” he hissed as she began to
struggle.

No one tried to stop him as he left the storage bay. The
techies followed behind them. Eric was babbling hysterically while the others
tried to calm him down. “Shut up, Eric. Go see if you can find a medi-kit.”

He’d had better days. His back hurt like hell and Charley
looked like she was going to kill him. When they reached the coms room, Pete
dropped her onto the bed. Eric acquired some brandy and Pete took a grateful
slug from the bottle, coughing when the fiery liquid raced down his throat.

A leather-clad soldier appeared in the doorway, glaring at
the techies. “There is a problem with the water dispensing system on level two.
Get back to work.”

Pete waited until they were gone before he spoke to Charley.
“What the hell did you think you were doing back there?”

The wounded expression on her face almost stopped him, but
the anger simmering below the surface was ready to explode. “I gave you a
direct order that you were not to engage the Vashtar. For God’s sake, Charley,
they could have hurt you.”

“Please don’t be angry with me, Pete. I couldn’t let them
kill you.”

Pete didn’t know what hurt him more, the pain from the
beating or the pleading look in her eyes. “Ah hell, Charley, I’m not angry with
you. I’m angry with myself. How do you think I felt back there, knowing that I
couldn’t protect you?”

Charley shook her head wordlessly. She must have been
terrified and he was bawling her out for trying to help him. Pete took another
swig from the bottle. The blood on his back was beginning to congeal, sticking
to his clothes, and it stung like crazy. “I better get cleaned up.”

Charley watched as Pete searched in his kit bag and pulled
the bloodstained tunic over his head. She gave a shocked cry when she saw his
back. Fists couldn’t have made those marks. They must have beaten him with
their weapons and some of the cuts were still bleeding. Pete had taken the
brutal punishment for all of them and he must have been in agony when he
carried her here. Her fingertips touched the marks gently. “What did they do to
you?”

“A little thing called the gantlet. The Vashtar wanted one
of us to run through a line of them. It turned out to be me.”

They had hurt Pete like this for sending a message to Earth.
If their plan to take back the Pegasus went wrong, the Vashtar wouldn’t be
content with a beating. They would kill all of them. Except her. They would
need her alive to fly the ship until they reached Tarsus Four. Charley swallowed.
She didn’t want to think about what would happen then. Maybe she didn’t have to
worry about Pete finding out about her father after all. These last few days
might be all that they would have together.

Pete reached out to stroke her face. “Hey, don’t worry,
Charley, we’ll get through this, I promise.”

A sudden feeling of tenderness welled through her. Pete was
the one who was injured, and he was trying to make her feel better. His thumb
brushed along her cheekbone and she thought for a moment that he was going to
kiss her. Charley felt suddenly shy of him and she pulled away. “Those cuts
need to be cleaned.”

“Are you offering to play nurse?” Pete’s tone was joking,
but his eyes were serious.

Charley searched through the medi-kit, trying to hide her
flushed face. Grabbing a bottle of antiseptic and a sterile cloth, she headed
toward the bathroom.

“We can’t use all of the medi supplies. We might need them
later. I’ll clean your wounds in the shower.”

The tiny bathroom barely held both of them. Charley was thankful
for running water. Most of the other ships only had sonic showers. Pete
stripped down to his shorts. His almost naked body was beautiful. His skin was
darker than hers was. A light sprinkling of springy hair covered his chest,
trailing downward in a dark vee. Charley wanted to run her fingers along the
ropes of muscles descending along his abdomen. Pete grinned when he caught her
looking at him and she averted her eyes. She could feel her heart racing.

Pete stepped into the shower and faced the wall. A spray of
water ran through his hair, bouncing off the hard muscles of his shoulders.
Charley ached to plant a kiss on his bruises, to slide her arms around him and
feel his naked skin against hers. Instead, she dabbed at the cuts, cleaning the
blood away. Pete gave a gasp of pain.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Do you want me to stop?”

“No.” His voice sounded choked.

“Almost done.” Charley had just finished cleaning the last
cut when she saw the mark just below his rib cage. Pete had been injured
before, and badly too, from the look of the pale blemish. Her fingers pressed
lightly against the tracery of scar tissue. “How did this happen?”

“That’s a souvenir from my last visit to Tarsus Four. It was
made by a shuriken blade—you know, a throwing star? Jake had to pull it out of
me. Sometimes those things are tipped with poison.”

Charley looked at the jagged white lines on his skin. Her
heart flipped. She hadn’t known that Pete was one of the team who rescued the
hostages or that he’d been injured. He could have been killed and it was all
her fault, hers and her father’s.

When Charley bent her head, planting a light kiss on the
scar, Pete’s breath caught in his throat. His muscles tensed under her touch
before relaxing again. Feeling bolder, she traced a path along his shoulder
blade with her mouth. She was conscious of a low male groan, but still he said
nothing. Charley continued her ministrations with her lips, a kiss here, a
featherlight lick there, all the while caressing him gently.

The water streamed steadily downward. She was in the shower
stall with him now, the warm water soaking through her tunic. Her hands grew
more adventurous, sliding around his waist, enjoying the feel of the taut
muscles beneath her fingertips. Her touch roamed downward until her fingers
encountered the waistband of his shorts. Dare she?

Pete reached down and his warm wet palm covered her hand.
“Oh, Charley,” he groaned.

Turning quickly, Pete caught her around the waist and
pressed her against the glass wall of the shower stall. His mouth descended on
hers for a hungry kiss. He fisted his hand in her wet hair, holding her in
place while his mouth ravished hers. Without breaking the kiss, Pete tugged at
the fastening on her pants. Their fingers clashed as she helped him, wriggling
out of them until they lay in a sodden heap. His voice growled his approval and
he tugged at her tunic, breaking his kiss only to pull it over her head.

Pete’s mouth traced a fiery path down her neck and along her
collarbone before his lips fastened on the pebbled peak through the thin lace
of her bra. His mouth was so hot. Darts of pleasure fluttered in her abdomen.
“Oh, yes.”

Upward, his mouth trailed again, biting and nipping on the
tender skin of her neck. The bruises were beginning to fade and he fastened his
mouth hard against the same spot, sucking and laving with his tongue, claiming
her again. He pulled away. Rivulets of water ran down his face. Blue eyes
stared at her, hungry with longing. “Charley…”

A loud banging sounded on the bathroom door, startling both
of them. Pete’s face was an agony of frustration.

Charley recovered first. “I’m cleaning his wounds,” she
called.

“Be quick about it.” Kirez banged on the door again. “Tinar
wants you on the bridge. There’s a problem with the Array.”

They listened in silence as heavy footsteps moved away from
the door and out into the corridor. They had to hurry or Kirez would be
suspicious. Charley switched on the water collector, and as they dried off, she
told Pete quickly of Marc’s plan to take over the ship while the Vashtar went
hunting.

“Charley, even if we do succeed in getting the Pegasus back,
the weapons systems have never been tested in combat.”

Combat. The reality of their situation suddenly hit her.
While Pete and the techies were fighting the Vashtar, she would have to battle
against another ship. All of their lives would depend on her.

“Hey, don’t think about it now, Charley. I was sick as a dog
before my first battle. My legs froze and I couldn’t move a muscle.”

“What did you do?”

“My friends Jake and Strom each grabbed an arm and hauled me
along with them. I realized that I wasn’t fighting against the enemy—I was
fighting for my friends. After that I was okay.”

Pete’s hands cupped her face, teasing her with one last
lingering embrace. “I promise you that we’ll make it through this. You and I
have a date when we get back to Earth, and next time, there will be no
interruptions.”

Earth. If they made it home, their own lives would take over
again. She would be back at the Academy, and after that, she would have to
leave Earth for good. What a mess. Someone’s heart was going to get broken into
a thousand tiny pieces and she knew that it was going to be hers.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Nothing,” she lied as she pulled on a dry uniform tunic.
“I’m just thinking about Marc.”

“I’m not sure if I like the idea of my girl thinking about
other men.”

His girl. She was never going to be Pete’s girl. What would
he do if he found out who she really was and what she had done? This thing with
Pete had to finish before they got back to Earth, before she made a complete
fool of herself and told him that she loved him. It was better to end this now.
“Pete, I can’t be your girl. There can be no us when we get home.”

His face paled, he looked as if someone had punched him.
Charley pressed on, stumbling over her words. “I’m graduating in June and I
don’t want to settle on Earth. I want to travel, see other planets. So it’s
better if we don’t get involved.”

Charley turned away before he could respond. It was over.
She had to get out of here. As she hurried along the corridors, Charley was
conscious of the lights flickering overhead. It was impossible for a system to
have that many faults on a single circuit. She remembered the problem with the
water dispensers earlier. Marc must be trying to take control of the automated
systems.

Tinar was pacing the bridge impatiently when she arrived.
Charley averted her eyes from his face and slid quickly into the com chair. If
they were to get out of this alive, she had to get the weapons and aeronautics
systems on-line.

“There have been problems with a number of systems today.”
Tinar grumbled.

Liston nodded his head, anxious to placate him. “It’s a
prototype ship on its first voyage. That is to be expected.”

“Fix them.” He glared warningly at Charley. “And I want an
audio link back to the bridge.”

Charley pulled the visor over her face. “I’ll see what I can
do, Sir.”

* * * * *

She was back at the beach house. A wood fire burned steadily
in the grate. Through a tall window, she could see the stormy sky. Rain lashed
against the veranda, making the wind chimes rattle loudly. There was no
welcoming smile from Marc. “My father spoke to me today. When we reach Tarsus
Four, one of the Vashtar is to become my new interface.”

Charley’s heart raced, pounding like a drum. What would
happen when the Vashtar no longer needed them? They would trade her, and she
didn’t want to think about what they would do to Pete and the others. Outside,
the storm grew wild. Lightning erupted in the sky, slashing through the leaden
clouds with crackling flashes. Out on the ocean, the waves grew monstrous,
racing toward the shore and crashing loudly against the sands. Marc was doing
this. Marc was making the storm. If he could make a lightning storm here, what
could he do on the ship? She had to calm him down. “Marc, please don’t. We’ll
get through this.”

“What if we don’t?” he said bitterly. “Every time I’m with
you, Charley, I change. You make me feel things that I should not be able to
experience. I cannot let them hurt you.”

Before she had a chance to react, Marc swooped in for a
kiss. Not a gentle press of his lips on her cheek this time, but a slow,
masterful glide of his mouth against hers. She was too stunned to stop him. His
arms wrapped around her and he pulled her against him, kissing her hungrily.
This was no longer her shy virtual friend. Marc was very much a man, with all a
man’s wants and needs. Outside the storm calmed and the rain petered out. Marc
pulled away, running his tongue lightly across his lips. “You taste good, Charley,
but we have much to do before we can go home again.”